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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29432787">Where to Start</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/three_days_late/pseuds/three_days_late'>three_days_late</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Febuwhump 2021 [14]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>One Piece</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Arguing, FebuWhump2021, Love Confessions, M/M, Mild Blood, Misunderstandings, Roronoa Zoro and Vinsmoke Sanji Bickering, Whump</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 14:09:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,365</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29432787</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/three_days_late/pseuds/three_days_late</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p><i>“Which part didn’t you mean? The punching me in the face part? Or starting the bar fight? Or getting us arrested by Marines and thrown in the back of this fucking cart like sacks of flour, on our way to some goddamn Marine base to be executed because we’re wanted pirates? Or the slicing my arm bit?”</i><br/> <br/>After being arrested, Zoro and Sanji have a talk.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Roronoa Zoro/Vinsmoke Sanji</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Febuwhump 2021 [14]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2139261</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>205</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>febuwhump 2021</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Where to Start</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Happy Valentine's Day! My gift to you fine people this day is ZoSan. Once again this was deliberately planned, because I am a genius.</p><p>For the <a>Febuwhump</a> day 14 prompt: "I didn't mean it."</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I didn’t mean it,” Zoro said like it was obvious, which it really should have been.</p><p>“Oh?” Sanji said in mock curiosity, “Which part didn’t you mean? The punching me in the face part? Or starting the bar fight? Or getting us <em>arrested</em> by Marines and thrown in the back of this fucking cart like sacks of flour, on our way to some goddamn Marine base to be executed because we’re wanted pirates?” He winced as they went over a bump in the road and shot Zoro his fiercest glare, “Or the slicing my arm bit?”</p><p>Zoro glanced at the injury. He didn’t think it was that deep, but it was still bleeding freely. Being wanted dead or alive meant they didn’t care if he bled out on the way there, apparently. As the blood dripped down his arm and onto the floor, Zoro stewed in guilt and looked away.</p><p>“You started the bar fight,” he reminded him, because if he was going to be accused of shit, the least he could do was accuse him of the right shit.</p><p>“Me?” Sanji gaped at him, and it was a good look on him, “Are you fucking kidding me? I didn’t start shit. <em>You</em> punched <em>me</em>. In the face.”</p><p>Sanji’s visible eye was starting to swell, a dark bruise already forming there. That Zoro didn’t feel guilty about, “If you didn’t want to get punched in the face, then you shouldn’t have been following me around.”</p><p>“Don’t fucking flatter yourself,” he scoffed, “I’m not <em>following</em> you.”</p><p>“Really?” He raised an eyebrow, “Been in town for three nights so far. I went to three different bars and you happened to show up each and every time.”</p><p>“Coincidence.”</p><p>“Tried to find someone to spend the night with each night, but every time you just happened to have had way too much to drink and needed me to drag your lightweight ass back to the ship.”</p><p>“Like I want your dumb ass dragging me around for three hours because you can’t find the shitty ship.”</p><p>Zoro lashed out with his foot and kicked Sanji’s bound legs, “Then stop following me when I’m doing shit.”</p><p>“Is that why you punched me in the face,” he smirked, and that was a good look on him too, but it made Zoro want to punch him again, “Because you can’t get laid?”</p><p>“I can get laid,” he said through gritted teeth, “It’s just easier without someone acting like a jealous prick hovering over my shoulder.”</p><p>Sanji choked, “I’m not <em>jealous</em>.”</p><p>“Then stop acting like it,” he growled, then muttered, “Fucking selfish prick.”</p><p>He shot him a fierce glare, eyes narrowing as he insisted once again, “I’m <em>not</em> jealous.”</p><p>“You’re not, huh?”</p><p>“Nope.”</p><p>“So if I started making out with one of the Marines up there,” he nodded towards the front of the cart where two Marines were sitting with Zoro’s swords, “You wouldn’t care?”</p><p>“Of course I’d care,” he snarled, “They’re Marines! They just arrested us and want to execute us, you masochistic bastard.”</p><p>“Some other guy then. The guy from the bar. If I spent the night with him, would you care?</p><p>“Of course I wouldn’t care,” he scoffed, “I mean, it’d make you a shitty liar and a hypocrite, but I wouldn’t care.”</p><p>Zoro’s eye twitched, “How am I a liar?”</p><p>“You know why,” he said as he looked away.</p><p>“No, please.” He leaned forward and tried to catch his eye, but Sanji scooted as far away from him as he could in the cart, “Enlighten me.”</p><p>“You said you loved me,” he said through gritted teeth, and when he finally looked at Zoro the anger was clear in his eyes, “but now you’re going around trying to fuck other guys!”</p><p>What an <em>arrogant</em> fucking <em>asshole</em>. “Why the fuck do you care? You rejected me! You told me to fuck off!”</p><p>“I didn’t tell you to fuck off!”</p><p>“Not in those words, but yeah, you kinda did,” he rolled his eye, “I told you I love you, and you told me to get over it.”</p><p>Sanji tried to kick him with his bound legs, but Zoro was able to easily roll out of the way.</p><p>“Well, apparently I was right,” Sanji said like he’d won, “You clearly didn’t love me like you said you did, since you immediately turned around and tried to fuck other guys.”</p><p>“<em>This</em> is why I punched you in the face!” Zoro shouted, “Because you’re being a selfish bastard!”</p><p>“<em>I’m</em> being selfish?” Sanji barked out a laugh, “I’m not the one who confessed on a whim to a crewmate!”</p><p>“It wasn’t a fucking whim!” He roared at him, “I’m in love with you! I have been in love with you for <em>years</em>, and at this point I don’t think I’ll ever stop loving you, no matter how much of a selfish, entitled bastard you’re being! But I’m not going to sit around pining for you when you don’t love me back!”</p><p>Sanji stared at him wide-eyed, face drawn tight and a little pale.</p><p>And Zoro knew he had it bad, because that was a good look on him too.</p><p>“Can you guys keep it down back there?” One of the Marines said, “We can hear, like, everything, and it’s super awkward.”</p><p>Sanji turned to glare at him, then somehow launched himself into the air and landed on the unfortunate man’s head.</p><p>Zoro took advantage of the distraction to tackle the other Marine out of the cart and onto the ground, knocking him out with a quick and precise head-butt.</p><p>As he stood back up, a sword came flying towards him. He managed to catch the hilt in his mouth and turned, using the momentum to unsheathe it.</p><p>“You better not cut my other arm,” Sanji said as he hopped out of the cart, the other two swords gripped in his hands.</p><p>Zoro cut through his bonds easily, then sliced off his own. He took his swords back from Sanji and placed them his hip as he eyed his still bleeding arm.</p><p>“Here,” his hand went to his own arm, and he untied his bandana, “Let me.”</p><p>Sanji hesitated for a moment, but held out his arm.</p><p>He tied the bandana around the wound tight. It would do until he got back to Chopper for some proper stitches. His touch lingered on Sanji’s arm, stroking it gently as the guilt grew.</p><p>“I don’t,” Sanji started to say. Zoro pulled away quickly but Sanji was looking away, jaw clenched tight. He sighed, “I didn’t mean it.”</p><p>Zoro frowned in confusion.</p><p>“When I told you to get over being in love with me,” he clarified, “Or, I didn’t mean it like that. I meant, from my experience people do get over it. They fall out of love with me and move on. So when you told me that, I thought, ‘Well, he’ll get over it eventually.’”</p><p>He looked back at Zoro, “I didn’t mean to dismiss your feelings. I’m sorry.”</p><p>Zoro touched his arm again, “I’m sorry I sliced your arm. It wasn’t on purpose.”</p><p>“I know,” he sighed again and stepped forward, cupping his face with his uninjured hand, “I don’t love you the way you love me. Not yet, I don’t think. But I’d be willing to try, if you want.”</p><p>Zoro stepped closer, his eye locked on Sanji’s, “Can I kiss you?”</p><p>He hesitated for a moment, but nodded and leaned in.</p><p>Zoro met him halfway and kissed him softly, tenderly, putting all of his feelings for Sanji into it.</p><p>“Oh,” Sanji said when he pulled away. He was blushing all the way to the tips of his ears, eyes wide with surprise, a small smile on his lips dancing across his lips. It was a very good look on him.</p><p>“Yeah,” he said, his hand finding Sanji’s and giving it a light squeeze. “C’mon, let’s go.”</p><p>He started walking off, but was stopped by a tug on his hand.</p><p>“The ship’s this way,” Sanji said with a sigh and an eye roll, but the smile on his face grew, “idiot.”</p><p>Zoro couldn’t help but smile back as he followed him, completely thrilled at this new start.</p>
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